TORONTO,
ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Feb. 11, 2010) - Under terms revealed in leaked copies of the
new Canada–US trade deal, Ontario will become the only province in Canada
allowing unrestricted access to those countries who have signed onto the World
Trade Organization's Government Procurement Agreement for publicly-funded
contracts supplying schools, universities, social services and hospitals, said
Fred Hahn, President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario
at Queen's Park today.

Appearing
with the Council of Canadians at a joint news conference called to release a
leaked copy of the new trade deal, Hahn said, "This is a bad deal for Ontario
and Ontarians should be aware of what their Government is giving away before
it's too late."

"We
are concerned that, in the long term, Ontario will be the only province
required to give permanent and unfettered access to these vital sectors in the
new trade deal when most of the other provinces and territories have exempted
them and Quebec has protected itself with a clause exempting anything that
pertains to culture," Hahn said.

The
CUPE Ontario President says that, based on a copy of the deal leaked earlier
this week, he is worried about local food procurement policies in place in the
City of Toronto and bottled water bans in cities and regions across Ontario.
Hahn is concerned that fair wage policies in place in the City of Hamilton or
the City of Greater Sudbury's "Made in Canada" policy may come under attack
from American and foreign corporations. He points to Appendix A of the
Agreement which lists the permanent commitments being made by Canada under the
WTO's GPA as a major area of concern. He is also skeptical that the "interim"
commitments on "enhanced access" that are being made directly to the US in
Appendix C will ever come off the books.

Echoing
the concerns of many critics, including other Ontario and national labour
leaders, Hahn said the deal gives away far too much in return for far too
little and said Dalton McGuinty should refuse to sign on.

"This
deal would limit the power of the provincial government to harness all the
possible economic levers at its disposal to deal with the economic crisis,"
said Hahn. "The race to sell off or give away our province needs to end and the
Premier should not sign this deal."

CUPE Ontario
represents 220,000 members, approximately 155,000 of whom work in schools,
universities, social services and hospitals.